Continuity and change in British cost accounting development: the case of Hawthorn Ieslie, shipbuilders and engineers, 1886-1914

This article examines the cost accounting system of a British shipbuilding and engineering firm during the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries. Research findings indicate a high level of continuity in the essential features of the system, with a trend to produce information outside of the accounting ledgers in order to satisfy managerial information requirements. Furthermore, while accounting information provided the basis for much routine decision making and control, it played only a limited role in strategic decision making which was underlain by social and cultural considerations. The current research adds to the body of work of the neoclassical revisionists in building a new conventional wisdom of the development of British cost accounting.